ACTIVITY OF THE OBSERVATORY

Landscape Catalogues

Public participation

The landscape catalogues incorporate public consultation as a tool for the involvement and co-responsibility of society in landscape management and planning. Its importance is also based on the fact that it is through participatory processes that the more perceptible, identity-based and intangible factors of landscape can be detected, factors which are difficult to identify exclusively from the work of specialised experts.

The mechanisms of public consultation used throughout the process of making the landscape catalogues are diverse and vary in each landscape catalogue. These mechanisms are the following:

Information sessions. Sessions open to everyone interested in the landscape catalogue, with explanations about what the catalogue is and its stage development, and the opinions of those attending are gathered.

Participatory workshops. Workshops lasting for a morning, for people who have previously attended the information sessions and are interested in discussing and going more deeply into various themes related to the landscapes of their own territorial ambit.

Interviews with landscape agents. In-depth interviews with the principal landscape actors (institutions, economic and social sectors, experts, etc.), conducted individually, in order to ascertain their opinions on the problems, values, characteristics and challenges of the landscape under study.

Workshops with landscape agents. Meetings for discussion on particular themes with selected representatives from institutions, public and private entities, financial and social sectors and experts in these matters. In contrast to the in-depth interviews, various landscape agents are present at the tables and can contribute different views over the same theme.

Discussion groups. Working sessions with people of diverse professional profiles who, individually, get together on three occasions to debate on the values, problems and challenges of the landscapes in the territorial ambit in question.

Opinion poll. Opinion poll on the perception and experience of landscape undertaken in the Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona, through interviews with 1.050 inhabitants aged over 16 years in this district.

Landscape Inbox. Electronic address where those interested can send their opinions on the landscapes of Catalonia : observatori@catpaisatge.net.

Consultation via the web. On-line questionnaire from the Landscape Observatory website to collect the perceptions of the population in relation to different landscapes.

The organisation and development of the various mechanisms for consultation and participation have the support and collaboration of the General Directorate of Citizen Participation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Institutional Relations and Participation of the Government of Catalonia.